Rajvardhan Azad nominated to Bihar legislative council in place of Kushwaha

Azad is the son of former Bihar chief minister Bhagwat Jha Azad. He had also unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha election once in 2014 from Godda

Eminent ophthalmologist and Bihar State University Service Commission (BSUSC) chairman Dr Rajvardhan Azad was on Friday nominated to the Bihar legislative council as a member, a notification issued on Friday stated.

Azad resigned as BSUSC chairman before the notification of his nomination as a member of the Bihar legislative council (Bihar State University Service Commission (BSUSC) chairman Dr Rajvardhan Azad)

According to the gazette notification, Azad’s nomination comes after the seat fell vacant following the resignation of former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha earlier this year.

Azad resigned as BSUSC chairman before the notification of his nomination as a member of the Bihar legislative council. He will have over a four-year tenure, the remaining period of Kushwaha, said the notification.

“In exercise of power conferred by sub-Clause (e) of Clause (3) and Clause (5) of Article 171 of the Constitution of India, the Governor of Bihar is pleased to nominate Azad in the Bihar Legislative Council to the vacancy due to resignation of nominated member Upendra Kushwaha on February 24, 2023,” read the notification signed by joint secretary-cum-joint chief electoral officer Mithilesh Kumar Shahu by the order of the governor.

Azad is a recipient of the prestigious BC Roy National Award for eminent medical teacher by the Medical Council of India in 1987 and former chief & professor of ophthalmology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi. He was appointed the chairman of the revived BSUSC on March 1 2019 and he was into his second term.

Kushwaha, who quit the Janata Dal (United) earlier this year and floated his own party, gave up his council membership on February 24.

Azad is the son of former Bihar chief minister Bhagwat Jha Azad. He had also unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha election once in 2014 from Godda.

“It is a new responsibility and I will try to live up to the trust chief minister Nitish Kumar has reposed in me. I have all along been a teacher and this is a new role,” he said.

The Bihar legislative council has 75 seats. Its members are elected from the assembly, local bodies, graduates and teachers’ constituencies, or nominated by the governor.